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“A United Nations human rights investigator says the federal government should set up a national inquiry into the issue of murdered and missing aboriginal women in Canada.
James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, spent the last nine days touring the country, talking to aboriginals and both federal and provincial government officials.
He says governments have pledged a number of steps to deal with the problem of hundreds of missing aboriginal women, but First Nations people lack confidence in that process.
“One community I visited has suffered a suicide every six weeks since the start of this year,” Anaya said Tuesday.
Anaya says a national inquiry would ensure a co-ordinated response to the problem and allow the families of victims to be heard.
He says such an inquiry would also demonstrate a responsiveness to aboriginal concerns.
It is estimated there are close to 600 cases of missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada dating back to the 1960s, a phenomenon Anaya describes as disturbing.
Anaya also urged the federal government not to rush an aboriginal education reform hill.
He said he heard “a particular deep concern that the process for developing the act has not appropriately included nor responded to aboriginal views.”
“In light of this, I urge the government not to rush forward with this legislation but to re-initiate discussions with aboriginal leaders to develop a process and ultimately a bill that addresses aboriginal concerns and incorporates aboriginal view points.””
– National Post, UN human rights official endorses call for Canadian inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women.
Information
The Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) campaigns for local and national media to feature stories on the annual October 4th Sisters In Spirit Vigils. You can read more with the Fact Sheet they released.
There are additional campaigns online at Families of Sisters in Spirit, Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, and several sources of information listed in this article, Missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada (Megaphone Diaries).
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Download the 18″x24″ poster (.pdf), Indian Country 52 #42 – 600 (MMIW).
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Indian Country 52
Indian Country 52 is a weekly project by David Bernie that uses the medium of posters that promote issues and stories in Indian Country.
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This work by David Bernie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may download, share, and post the images under the condition that the works are attributed to the artist.
